Title: Seriously…What am I Doing Here?

Author: Ken Schneck

Genre: Travelogue/Biography

Rating:    

ESCAPISM TO ADVENTURE (FOR NON-ADVENTURERS)

Does the geographic cure actually work? Through a fast-paced journey of saying “yes” to the unfamiliar, pack your bags and set out into the world with a gay Jew determined to answer that universal question of “Seriously…What Am I Doing Here?” Never having been on an adventure, he finds himself stumbling twice into rural Uganda; signing up for a 425-mile bike ride; stirring up drama at a Californian hippie, healing retreat; and somehow standing up straight with a colossal backpack strapped to his shoulders deep in the backwoods of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. This occasionally heartbreaking, often insightful, and reliably witty travelogue has at its core our never-ending search for meaning, our desperate need to grasp that elusive sense of place and community, and how we often fail to succeed (sometimes hilariously so) but keep right on trying.

Received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I’m not sure what it was that I expected this book to be but I did actually end up genuinely enjoying it. I’ve not read a lot of travel/bio books so this was a little bit of a step outside of my comfort zone, something that is amusing to me because this is what the book was precisely about.

The adventures of Ken are at times amusing, distressing and heartbreaking, but they all have a note of honesty to them that I really do appreciate. There are some people, who when writing about themselves would try to sugar coat it, or change the narrative to make themselves seem like more, to make themselves seem like flawless individuals. Ken Schneck does not do that and it’s something I love about this book. He is critical of others, and sometimes it is VERY deserving (looking at you No Trail Name Lady) and sometimes it isn’t so much. But the person he is most critical of at times is himself, as we all are.

This overall was an interesting, very human journey about how much we can grow and develop, in the most extraordinary and even ordinary of circumstances. I found this to be inspiring.